8B wondered when she was going to die.

She wondered how often she had died already.

Yonah was waving goodbye to the Resistance, smiling. Yonah was supposed to be enough to convince her that she shouldn't ask those questions. Look! A human! Like the ones on the Moon! The mission is sure to be a success.

8B had seen sure success. The last time, it ended with 22B confessing her love as she died in her captain's arms, only to have no memory of any of it when 8B lurched into the Bunker, covered in the blood of everyone she cared about and hundreds of machines.

"YoRHa soldiers should be alert at all times."

1D was in lecture mode, of course. Loyal as they came, and completely unaware of where that would bring her. 8B wasn't sure if number 1 even knew what love was, beyond love for humanity.

"If I wasn't alert, I'd be dead ten times over. Worry about the kids."

"All YoRHa soldiers."

Yonah frowned.

"8B's survival rate is one of the best in YoRHa, comparable with number 2. She knows how to handle herself."

Heh. Number 2. Even she had… whatever the hell she did with the Scanner.

"Thanks, glorious leader. I won't let you down."

Yonah smiled. Cute smile. She was going to be a helluva heartbreaker in a couple years, assuming she lived to see them. And assuming either humans returned from the moon or some android developed even more of a deathwish than the job required.

"I wouldn't have selected you for this assignment if I had any doubts. 4S?"

"Yes?"

"Report?"

"We have a trail, at least. Whatever we're looking for has been going through a lot of Machines, aiming for the goliaths. Normally, it's the kind of thing you'd want a whole team of YoRHa combat units for, but I'm only picking up a single signature."

"Pod?"

Normally, there'd be a number.

Normally, they wouldn't be stuck working with one pod for the whole unit.

Normally, there wouldn't be someone like 8B who'd gotten a clean shot at the damned little boxes. She'd seen what they did when someone found out too much. She didn't need the complication.

"Analysis: Current YoRHa strike team would likely be incapable of stopping the target, should direct combat arise."

"Thanks, 4. And command?"

"I still haven't had any luck. We're not getting any signal from the bunker."

"Welcome to the Earth, 4. You learn to work with it."

Only 8B hadn't seen static this bad last time. Or almost any time before. If she was the kind to risk making 4S go into a blind panic again, she might even bring it up.

Instead, she was busy trying to figure out what the mission could even be. It had to be important. There was no way you could justify the largest strike team 8B had ever been on (even if half of them had been wiped out in the landing) otherwise. But it wasn't a machine, considering how many of them it was killing. Or at least, it wasn't a conventional machine. Officially, all machines were the same, thoughtless killers with no goal but the destruction of mankind and all their works. Pretty simple job, assuming you bought the party line.

It was a long time since 8B had been able to trust it. Machines were the enemy, that much was obvious, but they were sometimes the enemies of other machines as well, or enemies on a minor enough scale that she could leave them for another mission, or another YoRHa unit. One of those odd machines...

Then 8B paused to remember when tended to happen when YoRHa field agents guessed at things they weren't meant to know. Best not to finish the connections while she had people watching. Best to smile and nod.

Yonah wasn't smiling.

"We'll need to make… fifteen hours travel to nine rest hours. I've marked some more-or-less defensible positions on the maps on your huds, so we'll aim for those, and use the target's path to avoid denser machine clusters. If we stay close, we can basically treat her as a jetstream, removing resistance and letting us catch up."

"Her, ma'am?"

Yonah didn't even look at 4S.

"It was shorthand. We make guesses with the information we have, and some of the target's traits match up well with common android designs. And, as about 65% of all combat androids with surviving deployment records are female, it's the more likely pronoun. "

"Sorry. I just was hoping we wouldn't have to work that deep in the dark. I'm a Scanner model, ma'am. We can't help but ask questions."

"Which is why I gave you an answer. I think we're ready to move?"

1D nodded like there hadn't been a need for the question. 8B tried to match the pose. Tried to look reliable, because the Moon knew as well as she did that there wouldn't be a place for any android who'd slack in the defense of humanity. Of course, any human who left androids to die without cause was perfectly justified.

Such always were the ways of gods to men.

"...Great."

Yonah took a breath, and tried, as best 8B could tell, to match the Commander's coldest glares. She didn't measure up.

"Move out, then. If we die without finishing this mission, none of it means anything."

For the first few "days" (if those even existed under an endless sun.), 8B would have said none of it meant anything anyway. No matter what they did, they were still transporting a slow, vulnerable (and all important, more valuable than her life, yes, she did remember her duties) human through something worse than a minefield. The distance to the target stayed the same because even the machines couldn't slow a killing machine down enough for someone like Yonah to catch up. Every once in a while, they had the bad luck to find a machine patrol the target missed. Every once in a while, 8B felt the rush of combat, and could pretend she knew why she was alive. But it ended, and so did the feeling she had anything figured out, and the feeling that the dead machines meant anything but enough scraps they could afford some repairs, assuming anyone could get dragged back to the armies of mankind. It wasn't much worth discussing for those first cycles.

That said, Yonah did meet a moose.

"...Should I get closer?"

1D's hand hovered an inch from Yonah's shoulder. Almost ready to yank her back, if there wasn't fear holding everyone in place.

"You have the authority here."

"I know. I know. I'm just… getting up the nerve. You'll shield me if anything happens, right?"

Yonah took a step forward. The moose continued to look down at the pinecones and twigs it was chewing on.

"Hey. Hey, I'm not going to…"

The moose looked up. Yonah froze.

After a second, it looked back down at its food.

"... yeah. Good boy. Good, good boy. Not charging like that, that's… good. I'll just back off now."

Yonah scrambled back to 8B's side as the moose chewed.

"So, That's a moose. Uh, not… not what we were looking for. I just had to confirm it."

4S coughed.

"I could have told you that, ma'am. Moose only manage about 2% of machine fatalities, and this one looks pretty docile."

"...Command responsibilities."

"If you say so."

"I wasn't sure if we'd… this might have been the last opportunity."

Yonah coughed.

"Sorry. I guess we just spent enough time on that lead. We're moving again. 4S, keep the scans running. We don't need surprises."

8B disagreed. The mission going well from that point forward would be a bigger surprise than anything the machines could bring to bare. Wouldn't do to say it, of course.

And, as the kilometers were marked off, there was less and less that felt worth saying. 4S said it anyway, of course. He noticed the difficulty with signalling command. Noticed the way they were following something that looked like the trail of a YoRHa android. Noticed a lot of the kind of things that 8B made sure not to notice, because she didn't want to have an accident that seemed to always come with knowing too much.

It was a long time since she believed that E types were only used to keep data out of enemy hands.

Of course, the war had never cared how 8B felt about it. Like humans, it was much older than any YoRHa android. Like the humans, it assumed seniority meant more than any kind of common sense.

"We're seeing a lot more machines wrecks lately."

8B shrugged. She'd hinted the Scanner should bring things up to her if he wasn't sure Yonah needed it yet. It wasn't going to prevent him from having something horrible, but it might buy him more time. Spending so long with the Scanner meant that she wasn't looking forward to him making a mistake.

"Dead machines are a good thing."

"I'm not going to argue with that. I'm just saying that there are more of them. I'd say we were getting closer to the target, but we're not making good enough time to be this close. It's more like…"

4S paused. 8B looked over at him.

"More like?"

"I'm just not sure. This might be something I should tell command, you know? 1D, or Yonah. They're supposed to be the ones who make decisions if we can't contact Command proper."

"Are you sure it's worth bothering them?"

Or, more accurately, was he sure it was worth his life? It wasn't 8B's place to tell him not to. But she was the only person who'd even vaguely notice when he was gone, which came with an equally vague sense of obligation.

"I think so. Whatever we're looking for might be looking for us."

"Might be?"

"Well, probably. She's circling. Not far behind us, either. It's not like she wants to chase us back home. It's more like she knows we're hunting her, and wants us to just go away."

"Do you really think you could convince 1D of that? That we should just leave?"

4S looked shocked under his blindfold.

"What? I wasn't suggesting we should leave. We could learn too much from whatever this is to ignore it. I was just thinking we should prepare for it."

"Of course."

8B took a breath to steady her nerves, and mildly cursed the engineer who decided she needed both.

"Feel free to report what you've found to Yonah. I'm sure she'll be interested."

"I thought so too. Thank you for the advice, ma'am."

The scanner dashed off. 8B took the opportunity to review her equipment.

A hunter who knew YoRHa patterns, and one that destroyed goliaths. There were missing executioners, lost scanners, things that 8B had almost wondered at, if wonder wasn't a sure way to fall on the field. Now she had an answer. Just in time to offer another question for herself when she died without a trace.

All her equipment and her chips were set to the current cutting edge. All her training had given her six months without a reset, a personal best. But she'd bet that none of it was good enough.

And worse, the mission equipment was all for subduing a target, not surviving afterwards. She almost wanted the scanner to start chattering again. Even when he was going through the same facts, it was a relief to let someone else carry the weight.

Unfortunately, 4S didn't come back to interrupt her streams of fatalism. Worse, Yonah did instead.

"Hey, 8B."

"Yonah. I was just making sure everything was in shape."

"...Good. We're camping out here. I mean, if… you know… we're…"

Yonah took a breath. In. Out.

"I think it would be best to wait for the target. And I think it might be…"

Yonah clenched her teeth.

"This is my command. I have authorization to inform you of anything the mission will require. Am I clear?"

"Yes, commander."

"Right. We're hunting down a deserter. YoRHa Attacker unit number 2."

"Oh."

8B didn't think it was worth asking who that was. She'd gotten more than she expected anyway.

Yonah coughed.

"We're going to try to bring her in alive if we can. She's family."

"It never mattered before."

"...It matters now. Am I clear?"

It was clear that 8B wasn't getting any more. She nodded.

"I'll set up. 1D knows too?"

"...I'll make sure she knows. I just figured you'd want to be reminded that I really want to trust you."

Yonah turned away as quickly as she could and walked away. 8B nodded, and started to set up what defenses she could. There was a disaster coming soon, and she might as well bunker for it. After all, she was just fighting another android, another soldier more or less like she was.

Knowing command, that was probably a big part of how they'd lost previous teams, just leaving them in the dark. Just knowing they were fighting an android might give them a better chance.

Or it would, if they weren't supposed to try and bring their opponent in alive. Hell of a time for Command to start worrying about the safety of its deserters.

She hoped the scanner and 1D were able to come up with something more creative than her basic work. Even a captain wasn't expected to have the kind of ideas scanners and healers worked with. And, as much as she should, she didn't trust Yonah to have the entire scenario mapped out.

As soon as the perimeter was set up, she closed her eyes. Androids didn't technically need sleep, but 8B felt like she'd earned it. It wasn't like 1D would let her miss any signs of activity. And, win or die, it wasn't a situation where a reprimand was likely to change her position.

She woke to the blare of klaxons, which judging from the urgency signaled a perimeter breach. Unlike humans, an average android could shift from sleep to full alert in the time it took to blink. 8B didn't even need that. Before the alert had been going for a full second, she was on her feet with her primary weapon at hand.

1D nodded from a matched stance. 4S had a display on his pod, a complete layout of the area with the motion that forced her awake blinking on the screen. And Yonah… Yonah was rubbing her eyes in the bright sun.

If there was one thing that this probably doomed mission had done, it reminded 8B why humans needed androids to serve and protect their fragile asses.

4S smiled.

"Not very subtle, is she?"

Yonah slowly nodded.

"Never was. Then again, she was never the type to hurt people either. Let's not count on…"

"I've already got her signature, ma'am. I can lock her down and pick her open before she even knows I'm in."

"Are you sure? I'd think…"

"Trust me, ma'am. She's a combat model. No offense to anyone else here, but they're not exactly known for their cognitive abilities. I'd be pretty surprised if she'd ever had a scanner ready for an ambush."

Yonah glanced over at the defender.

"1D?"

"There seems to be no reason to doubt the standard protocol. Any scanner would be well protected against a single attacker."

"Right… right. Okay. Authorized. Just… don't kill her. If you can."

"No promises, ma'am. Sometimes the data doesn't come out as easily as I'd like."

Yonah nodded, and the scanner took his position with a smile. The display on the pod shifted from a map to a white icon on a sea of grey, surrounded by white and black boxes.

Scanners tended to be at least a little arrogant in 8B's experience, but 4S's voice practically dripped at he narrated the process.

"And here we have a standard no-upgrades android's attempts at security. If you wonder why Command insists on security protocols… well. Take a look."

Wave after wave of defenses fell. 8B wanted to think it was that easy. But what she wanted had never had much pull, in the Bunker or on Earth, and it wasn't changing her thinking now. She and 1D were matched, blades at the ready for the end of the world. After all, it had happened before.

"And now for the coup de… huh. That's not supposed to…"

4S started shaking and collapsed onto the ground. 8B turned to see something falling towards her that looked too much like an android's sword for her to stay still. She dove for Yonah to shove her too the ground. 1D would, hopefully, have her back. There wasn't time for an alternative.

She rolled and saw the Scanner's body with his head removed. 8B's combat visor was torn and on the ground, the product of a very close encounter with Attacker 2's sword. 1D was blocking the Attacker's sword, the most durable soldier humanity could send against a weapon that was officially obsolete. And the weapon was still gaining ground. 8B kept Yonah's head down. She shouldn't see it.

Should. What 8B knew she should do according to all protocol was charge and make it a two on one fight. Give the defender a chance. What her instincts called for was grabbing the human and running like hell in the hope that her legs and 1D's arms could work together to buy her safe distance, and the fortune that had graced Yonah would extend to bring them both safely out of enemy occupied territory.

The two impulses froze her long enough for A2 to slice through 1D's defenses and end her current excuse for a life without a scream. 8B tried to scramble back. Dropped her sword. Lost track of her charge for a moment out of sheer, stupid desire to stay alive.

Yonah took the opportunity to poke her head up. She looked directly at the killer, right past the parts that were once YoRHa's best hope for the battle.

"A2?"

A2 looked away from 8B like she no longer mattered.

"...Yonah."

There was a little more venom in the name than 8B would have ever thought to give it. Yonah staggered to her feet.

"I know you might not… I just came here to talk."

A2 gestured with her sword at 4S's corpse.

Yonah swallowed her breath, but kept her gaze steady.

"By whatever means necessary. This was too important to worry about my life, let alone anyone else's."

"What do you want?"

"You abandoned Command. I need to know why."

A2 turned away.

"Command abandoned us."

"That isn't enough!"

A2 turned back and glared.

"Do you know what humans are doing?"

Yonah clenched her teeth.

"...Better than anyone else."

"Then you know they sent all of us to our deaths for a little more data. You planned for us to die. 1. 4. Seed. All…"

"Who told you that?"

"The machine terminals. They hacked into YoRHa's plans and saw everything."

"Either they didn't, or they lied to you. I promise, not a single human planned the operation."

"And what makes you so sure of that?"

"Because they're all dead."

A2 froze.

"What the hell?"

"They're dead. The moon? Hidden bunkers? YoRHa made it all up. I'm it! You think humanity abandoned you? I'm right here!"

"And you expect me to trust you."

Yonah forced herself to smile.

"I bet my life on it."

A2 looked at Yonah. Yonah looked back. And after a moment, A2 vanished.

Yonah slumped.

"Get the bodies. And patch me through to the Commander. I think we got an answer."

8B just stared.

"Why did you say that? What made you…"

"Because it's true. And it's something that you could be killed for knowing, so don't ask too much more. And don't bring it up. I don't want to see you on an Executioner's list."

"On…"

"Commander. Now. Please. We've lost too much for this to not get it back."

"Get what back? That A2 thinks Command betrayed her because she was stupid enough to trust a machine?"

"That the aliens are in our most secure servers. "

8B blinked.

She wasn't an operator or a scanner, didn't have a pod. Opening up a connection was slow and ungainly, even to get the same static that had been following them since Earthfall. But something opened up eventually. Maybe the bunker. Maybe not. But considering everything that she was expected to deal with, 8B felt like they couldn't complain about her performance.

"Operator? This is 8B. We have…"

On the other end of the line, someone laughed in a voice that didn't sound like an android. And the line disconnected.

The radio was silent. Something deep in 8B's gut felt like it wasn't going to speak again.

Yonah slumped against a tree.

"...We have to get back, then. Or try."

8B walked for her sword. It wasn't a good idea to be unarmed out here.

"And then what?"

"Contact YoRHa. If we can't… we build it up again. We keep trying. We keep fighting and lying, because we can't lose, and maybe we'll… I don't know. But we can't give up."

"And if I disagree?"

"...there's a kill order for you already. Everyone on this mission. I made sure of it before we left. If I don't return, or countermand it, you'll be hunted worse than A2 was."

"I thought you wanted us to know you trusted us."

"I do. Just not that much."

She looked down, and her voice drifted away.

"...Guess the apple doesn't fall that far after all, mom."

8B looked at her sword. At Yonah. At the woods. At the bodies and the lies that brought them all here, and the Bunker above that turned out worse than all of it.

It would be dangerous to run. It would be dangerous to return to the bunker, if it was even intact.

And no matter what 8B did, she'd betray and be betrayed. Not just the once, but by the day, by the minute.

She took a last look over the scene, and at the girl who'd just claimed to be the last of the things androids had hoped for all these long years. Who'd almost assuredly die if left alone.

And 8B made a choice.

[G]lory to Mankind.


(Author's notes: And that's a wrap, folks. Thanks for sticking with me for this long, and I hope going a bit Lady or the Tiger at the end didn't leave you too disappointed. It was kind of the only way I felt right ending it.

Don't know what's next, if anything, but for now, hope you liked it, feel free to comment on what worked for you and what didn't, and if you can, avoid starting a massive globe spanning conspiracy. They seldom end well.)